1972 was a very strange year for movie awards, as the Academy managed to honor
The Godfather and snub it at the same time. One of the most eagerly anticipated films ever made,
The Godfather didn't disappoint, featuring an iconic performance by Marlon Brando and star-making ones by Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall, dynamic direction by Francis Coppola, and one of the most quoted and memorable scripts in film history. Ranked as the third greatest American film ever made by the AFI (after
Citizen Kane and
Casablanca),
The Godfather was the overwhelming favorite at the Oscars and took home the Best Picture award.
Yet the Academy's admiration for
The Godafther was grudging at best, allotting its only additional awards to Marlon Brando as Best Actor and for the film's screenplay. The movie the Academy really seemed to prefer in 1972 was Bob Fosse's comparatively forgotten film of the stage musical
Cabaret, giving it eight awards, the most ever awarded for a film that didn't go on to win Best Picture. With the landmark status now afforded
The Godfather, some of the awards
Cabaret was given seem very peculiar indeed (especially Fosse's selection as Best Director over DGA winner Coppola and Best Supporting Actor Joel Grey over Pacino).
Cabaret is a fine film on its own merit, but compared with the masterpiece that is
The Godfather, it simply ceases to exist.
THE WORST AWARD [yes, this is the author's actual title for this next segment; it's not something I inserted]When NBC aired
An Evening With Fred Astaire in 1958, the landmark special won an unprecedented nine Emmy Awards. But the only award Astaire won personally, Best Single Performance by an Actor, caused a major controversy; because while his indelible charm and magnificent dancing made the show one of the most memorable in television's Golden Age, his performance couldn't really be categorized as acting. Joel Grey's Best Supporting Actor winning-turn as the Master of Ceremony in
Cabaret falls into a similar situation, because while there is no denying his brilliance in singing and dancing the numbers in the title setting or that he provides a chilling presence, the role does not require him to create a characterization where he truly interacts with the other characters. He has no dialogue in the role, and the character (which is really nothing more than a dramatic device) does not have what acting students typically describe as "an arch."
In a lesser year it might not have mattered, but 1972 offered some of the greatest acting ever seen in supporting film roles. The best of these were from
The Godfather, which garnered a record-tying three supporting nominations for Al Pacino (who really should have been nominated - and won - in the Best Actor category), James Caan and Robert Duvall, but which offered equally impressive work by Sterling Hayden, John Marley, and particularly by the underappreciated Richard Castellano (who
The Godfather author
Mario Puzo felt was robbed of a nomination). Enduring work was also offered by Eddie Albert in
The Heartbreak Kid..., Ned Beatty in
Deliverance,... and the great Buster Keaton [for] his performance in Chaplin's
Limelight...
BIGGEST OVERSIGHT [again, this is the author's title][C]inematographer Gordon Willis... his landmark work on
The Godfather was overlooked, in a year when the Academy chose to honor such conventionally photographed films as
1776, Butterflies are Free and
Travels With My Aunt...